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Arjah
Throughout all the Horde, few women have made quite as much of a name for themselves (fabricated it out of whole cloth, even) as the mercurial, self-promoting Arjah. With a background kept deliberately murky, a lazy accent disguising scholar-perfect speech, and a bad habit for blurring the times and particulars in spoken reminiscence, tracing her rise to leadership of one of the Horde's most active social movements can be frustrating even for her close friends... Previous Roles It can be safely agreed that a younger Arjah served with the now-defunct Erinyes Sisterhood, an all-female organization with a strong military tradition and a fierce allegiance to the Warchief and his Horde. The circumstances of her leaving for the shadowy Modas il Toralar are probably lost to time, or at least known only to the secretive Aziel V'Ghera and herself. Her other close confidants of the time, the shaman Grummak (who she long claimed as an adoptive father) and the warrior Krerash, are both long dead. Still, she began with the Erinyes, which may account for both her strong bias toward female company and her fundamentally loyalist streak. Reliable records of Arjah's career start during her time with the Modas il Toralar. A skilled poet, already known for her sonnets and light verse, she took to the task of propagandist with a will, producing in rapid succession a series of pieces glorifying the totalitarian order and helping to manage several public appearances and negotiations. While some of the work has been lost, copies of most of her statements on behalf of the Modas, as well as all of her poems, survive, though the details of her personal life within the order remain sketchy. An unspecified argument or falling-out led to the publication of the satirical poem "The Horse, or, a Poet's Caution," which infuriated V'Ghera to the point that he threw her out of the organization altogether. She occasionally refers to having "got a price put on my head just for writing a poem," which presumably refers to "The Horse," though whether or not V'Ghera actually sought her life is unclear. During its early days the School of Medicine - then only known as "Da Doctas" - kept loose paperwork, so the details of Arjah's hiring there are unknown. Her announcement of a new curriculum in Sorcery is the first official record from her long tenure at the school, during which she rose to hold "The Grummak Chair of Esteemed Doctorin'" and command of all military exercises for the school, as well as publishing a number of more ambitious poetic works. Her social and political roles increased during this time as well, and she became deeply involved in both the rise and the spectacular fall of the Horde Council, a briefly-influential body that drew together nearly every luminary of the contemporary Horde. Its eventual dissolution was at least partly blamed on her, and some friendships were never restored. Letters from the time and recordings of council proceedings reveal a fiery and often-cutting Arjah, prone to sharp speech and grand rhetoric. A second service with the Modas il Toralar came after the death of leader Aziel V'Ghera, and Arjah herself has always insisted that she offered herself to the order once again in exchange for the safe release of V'Ghera's assassin, the Head Protector of the School of Medicine. Mistrusted by the Doctas, who suspected both him and Arjah of being under Modas control, the hunter Dokarg was rebuffed despite this exchange, and stayed on with the Modas il Toralar instead, binding himself to Arjah's service as she took up command of their military wing. Standing second only to the new Headmaster, Arjah's public face during this time was largely warlike, focused on campaigns of terror against the Alliance - and the occasional harassment of Da Doctas, whose harsh response to her defection offended her deeply. Relations between the two guilds, never completely untroubled, dropped to an all-time low, though Arjah herself remained on friendly terms with Head Docta Hrookhzin. In the midst of shifting allegiances and political maneuvering, a family appears to have come together around Arjah - married to the priest Dreejin during her first tenure with the Modas il Toralar, she later became engaged to another troll when her husband vanished in the jungles, breaking it off very shortly before the marriage when he reappeared. A series of children followed - she eventually became infamous for her many and successful pregnancies - and the Head Docta Hrookhzin was confirmed as her natural father, adding a slew of half-brothers and half-sisters (many of whom were just as surprised as she to find out that they had a family). When the warlock Armaya broke off from the Modas il Toralar to found the Alterac University, Arjah and Dreejin followed, bringing Dokarg and a handful of other "Toralites" with them. Initially appointed to teach sorcery, as she had at the School of Medicine (where she had also grown into the role of "Professora of Etiqutte), Arjah quickly moved to establish a "College of General Education," offering courses in poetry, etiquette, education and teaching, and other practical or artistic skills. Despite recruiting the majority of the University's early students, the College of General Education was seen by the administration as wasteful and off-message, particularly after Arjah's enthusiastic revival of the ancient troll game "Bloodball" as a collegiate sport. Several exhibition matches were played against Da Doctas, and a cheerleading squad was formed, but administrative displeasure heightened, and Arjah found herself disgraced and ostracized by the time of the Scourge invasion from Northrend. A tongue-in-cheek prank during which she stole the Warchief's throne (more accurately, she sat on it while he was off fighting the Scourge, and pronounced herself "Warchieftess Arjah") resulted in her direct firing by the Headmistress Armaya, without consultation of the other faculty. Enraged, Arjah asked and encouraged Dokarg and Dreejin to resign, both of whom did. Greatmother of the Homeland The conversation the night of Arjah's firing from the Alterac University created the movement that would eventually become known as the Homeland. The three core founders - Arjah, Dokarg, and Dreejin - had all served in at least three other guilds or organization, and continually run afoul of rules, regulations, and commanding officers. Ignoring the possibility that, as the constant factors, they were probably responsible for the repeated conflicts, they agreed to establish a new society where no one outranked anyone else, and people just got on - or didn't get on - as they pleased, free from responsibility and authority alike. Arjah added the notion of a family-style structure, pointing out that most families already worked along similar principles, and with the recruitment of a few close friends and allies, the Homeland was born. The troll Iktik coined the title "Greatmother" during the first days of the organization, and it stuck for good. Of the three co-founders, only Arjah remains, though she and her husband still meet privately as he pursues holy calling in the jungles; a handful of recruits from the first drive - including Mama "Rosie" Erosielle - are the closest to her now in seniority. A year at the head of the Homeland has, for the most part, tidied Arjah's public image considerably. Her public speech and writing, especially in advertising her organization (which she styles as an "anarcho-cooperatist social movement"), has lost much of its sweeping rhetoric, aiming instead for a simple, populist appeal. She frequently portrays herself as "just a poet" or "just a simple troll," and lets her Darkspear accent come through heavily in conversation. More children have joined her brood (though none since Dreejin left for his duties in Stranglethorn), and her outlook on her fellow Homelanders is as a whole motherly, though she is very likely younger than many of them (and certainly than the elves). Public service and charity works have helped smooth over old disagreements, and, with the exception of a few former employers or commanders, she seems once again well-liked and even respected in the Horde. How long that will last remains anyone's guess... Category:Homeland Category:Individuals Category:Trolls Category:Guild officers Category:Horde Category:Horde Members Category:Mages